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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? A limousine taking nine women to a bachelorette party erupted in flames, killing five of the passengers, including the bride-to-be, authorities and the mother of one of the survivors said Sunday.

The limo caught fire at around 10 p.m. Saturday on one of the busiest bridges on San Francisco Bay, California Highway Patrol officer Art Montiel told The Associated Press.

Five of the women were trapped, but the four other women managed to get out after the vehicle came to a stop on the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge, the patrol said.

Rosita Guardiano told the San Francisco Chronicle that the woman for whom the bachelorette party was being thrown was to be married next month. Guardiano said her daughter was one of the survivors.

Investigators haven't determined what sparked the fire, but the patrol said the white stretch limo became engulfed in flames after smoke started coming out of the rear of the vehicle.

A photo taken by a witness and broadcast on KTVU-TV showed flames shooting from the back.

Aerial video shot after the incident showed about one-third of the back half of the limousine had been scorched by the fire. Its taillights and bumper were gone and it appeared to be resting on its rims, but the remainder of the vehicle didn't appear to be damaged.

The driver of the limo ? 46-year-old Orville Brown of San Jose ? was the only person to escape unhurt.

It wasn't clear if any other drivers on the bridge stopped and tried to help those get out, or how the driver managed to escape without injury.

All five women were pronounced dead at the scene. Autopsies were being conducted, San Mateo County Supervising Deputy Coroner Michelle Rippy said.

The company that operated the limo was identified as Limo Stop, which offers service through limousines, vans and SUVS.

Guardiano said her daughter ? 42-year-old Mary Grace Guardiano of Alameda ? was being treated for smoke inhalation.

The three other women who escaped the fire, Jasmine Desguia, 34, of San Jose; Nelia Arrellano, 36, of Oakland; and Amalia Loyola, 48, of San Leandro, were taken to hospitals to be treated for smoke inhalation and burns, the patrol said.

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Boxster17 78

Very tragic, assuming the fire must've spread ridiculously fast to kill 5 of them inside. Curious as to what caused the fire and can't really say I'm surprised the driver escaped unhurt looking at that picture, though one wonders if he could've done more to help.

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123456789A 4,710

They must have been well drunk -- I don't see why they could not have all got out of the car in time.

Looking at the picture, it seems like there might have only been two doors in the far back to enter the rear section, and since there was a fire in that area, it would make escaping difficult. Maybe they should have broken a window, but who knows what was going on in there.

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Hum 6,931

Five women who were killed Saturday evening after the stretch limousine they were riding to a bridal party burst into flames on a bridge over the San Francisco Bay tried to escape the inferno through the vehicle?s narrow partition, according to the driver.

Orville Brown, 46, sounded shaken as he described the horrific episode to NBCBayArea.com. According to the station, Brown said he heard commotion in the rear of the vehicle and thought one of the nine female passengers was asking him to pull over on the shoulder of the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge so she could smoke a cigarette.

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But Brown quickly realized that the woman was crying out for help as a fast-moving blaze and thick plumes of smoke engulfed the back half of the limousine, he told the station.

The women frantically tried to squeeze through the narrow partition behind the driver?s seat, according to Brown.

?We were all in shock,? Brown said. ?Scared, crying, frustrated."

Brown told the station that he managed to wrench three of the women through the divider, although the San Mateo County Coroner's Office said only one woman made it through the partition.

"My understanding is that three passengers got out the side back door on the driver's side and one made it out the passenger compartment window successfully to the driver's compartment," San Mateo Coroner Robert Foucrault told NBCBayArea.com.

Foucrault said the harrowing episode is one of the most tragic he has encountered.

"It's one of the worst fatalities that I've witnessed in the years I've been at this office," Foucrault told the station. "It's just the sheer realization that these people were trying to escape from inside the vehicle."

The five women who died in the blaze were discovered huddled near the front of the passengers' area, suggesting they had tried to escape through the partition, Foucrault said. They were ?probably killed by the fire,? but the cause of death was not immediately confirmed, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Art Montiel.

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Hum 6,931

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) ? As smoke thickened and a fire grew in the back of a limousine, Nelia Arellano desperately tried to squeeze through a 3 foot by 1 1/2-foot partition.

Stuck for a moment, Arellano made her way into the front seat. Three of her friends quickly followed. Five others didn't make it. Their bodies were later found pressed against the partition.

Arellano said in an interview Monday with KGO-TV that she believes the driver, Oliver Brown, could have done more to help during the fire, which took place Saturday night on one of the busiest bridges on San Francisco Bay.

"When he stop the car, he get out from the car, he just get out from the car," she said.

Arellano and other women had started the night celebrating the recent wedding of Neriza Fojas and were headed across the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge to a hotel in Foster City.

Brown, a San Jose man who worked for the limo company the past two months, has said in interviews that one of the passengers tapped on the partition behind him, saying something about smoke as music blared from the back. No smoking was allowed, he told them.

Then the taps turned to urgent knocks, and someone screamed "Pull over!"

Brown said he stopped on the bridge as soon as he could. Then he helped pull the women out through the partition, he said.

One of the women who made it through the partition ran to the back and yanked open a door, but Brown said that provided oxygen to the fire and the rear of the limo became engulfed in flames.

Brown said he believed it was an electrical fire.

"It could have been smoldering for days," he told KGO on Monday, noting there was no explosive boom.